Interesting Rohrschach result, there Patrick. Anyway, The Warbler will make his claims, but we ALL know that it went down differently. This is how the whole shebang was formed and what was going on before the Dome went to halves.

Babe the Blue Ox and her buddy, Paul Bunyan. A real American triumph. They formed lakes, valleys, hills and rivers. They were v. busy, you see, back then. But they did get to the Death Slab business eventually. All when Werner was in fact still a nice boy. Young and polite, like he was raised. And the Warbler was only just beginning to roost in the Valley.

An interesting variation of the question might be when it started to be the standard approach to the Northwest Face. I encountered a party topping out on the Regular Route in 1968, and they used the trail. I used the trail in the early 1970's, but I know that Robbins and Dorworth used the Death Slabs on the first ascent of Arcturus.

Feb 28, 2009 - 02:38pm PT
I think it was the summer of 1965, when Steve Hickman arrived in Yosemite to take over the Search and Rescue aspect for the NPS. Steve was a well known Colorado climber and a permanent ranger. He also was a fine individual, had a wonderful sense of humor and loved having a good time. All ingredients for a life long friendship.

I was hired by Rick Anderson, then District Valley Ranger, as Hickmans assistant, as Steve had little experience with Yosemite climbing. Rick had hired Jeff Foott the previous summer for the same position, but Jeff and gone off to the Tetons to work for Exum. I guess you could say Foott was the first “Climbing Ranger” in Yosemite and I was the second.

Steve and I did a number of climbs together and participated in far too many rescues and recoveries for the next two summers. To lighten the psychological baggage, we eventually named ourselves the “Alpine Body Snatchers” as we seem to deal with an unusually high number of deaths those two summers.

I may have the dates incorrect, but I believe it was the winter of 1964-5 that two Stanford students, Green and Hermann disappeared on a climb from Mirror Lake up to the NW face of Half Dome.

Numerous attempts were made to locate them but to no avail. In early summer, Chris Jones, while on the NW face noticed two bodies uncovered by the melting snow.

Five of us spent three long days getting the water logged bodies from the “Death Slabs” up to the saddle and then by horseback down to the valley. We had the use of a small, gasoline powered winch system, but it failed early on. Why, we did not use a helicopter I don’t recall. Certainly would have made things a lot easier and safer. I have always had a great fear of horses after getting thrown off one when I was young. As they slipped and slide down the rocky trails, I would take my foot out of the downhill stirrup on big dropoffs, ready to jump to the safer uphill side. Cowboy I am not.

The term ‘Death Slabs” is certainly appropriate but I don’t recall it being used back then? Not a place you want to hang out during the winter. Roper took a 600 ft fall in this area while “teaching” the finer aspects of crampon style to his partner Sacherer, who wanted a rope but Roper told him no, because he didn’t want to be pulled off if Sacherer fell! I remember smuggling bottles of red wine into Roper while he convalesced in the Yosemite Hospital for several weeks.

The odd thing about this entire experience is that Green was the son of my Physics Professor at San Jose State. I had such a horrible rapport with his father that I could never bridge the gap and communicate with him about the death of his son.